


The Power of Us

by thesnadger



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: A Brief Mention Of The Grunkles Sharing Intoxicants, Bubblegum Pop Music, But Really Heavy On The Comfort Side, Gen, Gratuitous Snacks, Hurt/Comfort, Pines Family Bonding, Post-Finale, Some Math, The Kids Are In College Now, cuddlepile
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 01:19:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14660288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesnadger/pseuds/thesnadger
Summary: Some people seem like they have an endless reserve of energy and cheer. But the reality is that everyone runs out of pep eventually. When college turns out to be harder than Mabel expected, her family comes to help her recharge.





	The Power of Us

“...And she kept saying that she'd never seen such smooth CG work from a freshman, and _I_ kept saying 'it's not CG, it's a real dinosaur' but of course she didn't listen and now my professor thinks I'm some sort of Maya whiz-kid and wants me to switch to animation.”

Dipper curled up on the dorm mattress, laptop in front of him. His roommate wouldn't be back for another hour or so making it the perfect time for him to Skype with Mabel. Mainly because they wouldn't get any strange looks if the conversation drifted to more supernatural topics.

“So that's basically been my week,” he said. “How's yours going?”

“Oh...yknow.” Mabel was at her desk, leaning forward with her chin in her hands, eyes cast off to the side. “Stuff and junk and stuff. Class and homework and being awesome. Normal stuff.”

Dipper waited for her to segue into her usual stories of people she'd met or projects she was working on or funny things she'd found on the internet for him. Instead she just fiddled with some of the little toys she kept on her desk—her 'study buddies,' she called them—not even speaking up to comment on the awkward pause. That was it, apparently. Just “stuff and junk.”

“Okaaay...are you feeling well?” Dipper gave her a half smile. “Usually by this point in the conversation I can't get a word in edgewise. Is everything okay?”

“Just tired, I guess.” Mabel yawned. “I dunno. College is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

“You _look_ tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?”

“Ha! Look who's talking, mister baggy-eyes. You could store nuts for the winter in those.” Mabel smiled and pointed back at him.

“ _I_ got a full eight hours last night, I'll have you know. And I always look tired. You don't. So how much sleep did _you_ get?”

“Mmmnh. Not that much.” Mabel admitted reluctantly. “The cafeteria has these big milky coffee drinks that they _call_ cappuccinos but are mostly whip cream, though. So there's a bright side to it.”

She smiled, but Dipper didn't smile back. After a moment, her smile dropped a notch and she sighed.

“I guess...I dunno, I had to take a course for the math requirement, and most of the art majors just take something called 'Mathematical Topics' which is like, the baby math course for people who hate numbers. But I saw this course called 'The Physics of Music' and it sounded way more fun and interesting, right? And I had to take a test to get into it because it meant skipping a required course and I just _barely_ passed...but now we're a few weeks into it and it's actually really hard, and...”

Mabel swallowed and smiled weakly at him. “I think I'm just not smart enough to get it. Maybe I should leave the mathy and sciency stuff to you and Ford.”

Dipper frowned. “Don't say that....”

“I just...It isn't just the math class. A lot of stuff is harder than I thought it'd be.” She wiped her face on her shirtsleeve and sniffed loudly. She wasn't crying, but the tears were in there. He could see them welling up in her eyes. “I keep sleeping through my alarm and forgetting to bring things to class. I joined a whole bunch of clubs when I first came but now I don't have time for any of them. I really thought I wanted to go to school in the big city, but now that I'm here it's so....”

“...Big?” Dipper supplied.

“Too big. I miss you and Waddles and mom and dad, and Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford and all my friends at home and in Gravity Falls. I'm sort of making friends here, but...I dunno.”

“What about your roommate?” Dipper asked. “I remember when you moved in you had big plans. Makeover parties and movie nights and stuff...”

“Rachel's okay, I guess, but she's never here! She goes home almost every weekend and then she's with her boyfriend all the time. And even if she was here I don't know if she'd want to talk about anything...She kinda reminds me of Pacifica back when she was less fun and more...y'know.” Mabel blew a long, drawn out raspberry.

Dipper's frown deepened. He shrank the Skype window and opened a browser, typing 'cute pictures of pigs' into the search engine. “That sounds awful. Can't you get a roommate transfer?”

“I dunno. I didn't really ask.” Mabel sighed. “I mean, maybe she _is_ just like Pacifica and just needs to learn about sharing and friendship and stuff?”

“Maybe, but you don't have to be the one to teach her. It sounds like you've got enough stress as is.” Dipper copied the urls of the cutest pigs he found and pasted them into the instant messenger.

“Eh...you know I'll be—oh, that is so cute!” she smiled, looking down at her computer screen. “He's got a little ice cream cone! Anyway, I'll be all right. I'm invincible.” She grinned, but her eyes still looked tired. “I just have to _power through!_ ”

“Is there anything I can do?” Dipper asked, pasting another pig picture into the instant messenger.

“Aww, look at his fat little tummy!” Mabel smiled “Nah...I don't think so. Just talking to you is enough. And the pig pictures.”

Dipper smiled back. But it didn't feel like enough. Not by half.

They talked for a while longer, Dipper doing his best to distract her with stories and silly music videos he found online. Mabel started yawning and said she ought to go to bed, and the two of them said goodbye.

Dipper lay on his bed in the dark room, staring at the glow of the screen. Then he opened up his email account and began to type.

* * *

There's a tiny island in the south pacific that doesn't show up on any maps, but that has a small village by the coast. It isn't the grandest place to live, but it has its charms.

The locals there respect the plants. They have to. Flowering vines curl and twist wildly around homes and storefronts. Wooden walkways stretch across clusters of palms, giving the whole place the look and feel of a tropical Rivendell. But travelers never come to marvel at the strange but beautiful fauna. Tourists never stop by to buy the local weaves or listen to the local music, or to sample the purple-spotted leaf that grows there and that is not entirely unlike Kava. The locals don't generally look at the plants surrounding them, preferring to keep their eyes fixed on the nearest bare patch of ground.

Once every few weeks, a vine curls around someone's leg and pulls them deep into the greenery, never to be heard from again.

At least, that was true until a week ago, when a boat manned by two brothers arrived on their shore. One of the brothers held a small electronic device in his hand and kept glancing down at it, tormenting anyone who would hold still long enough with perplexing questions, and explanations that seemed to explain nothing at all. The other stood back, arms folded, eyeing everything green with a detached sort of suspicion before finally hushing the first man and saying “he wants to see your man-eating plants.”

It was a while before they found someone willing to point them down the paths that led deep into the jungle. Doing so would be nothing less than murder, after all. But through some magic or miracle, the two men came back--not just alive, but laughing. Covered in sap and the drippings of countless strange plants and full of tales of the creature they'd confronted and put to sleep for a thousand years.

“Or,” as the elder of the brothers had said. “A thousand give or take a couple decades. You'll want to send someone in there at least nine hundred and fifty years from now to refresh the wards, just to be safe. But you shouldn't have any more trouble with people disappearing.”

The locals were stunned, then overjoyed, and soon the brothers were swept away to a hero's celebration. The elder joined the first toast and a few songs, but soon retired to his craft so he could examine the strange leaves and vines that he had taken from the jungle. By contrast, the younger brother seemed happy to celebrate until dawn, dancing and drinking and enjoying the attention of the pretty men and women who begged him to tell again the story of how they had subdued the dark green heart of the island.

At least, it seemed that way until his brother rejoined him.

“Sixer!” the younger brother grinned, pleased to see him the way a man can only be pleased after partaking of a plant not entirely unlike Kava. “You're back! Get tired of staring down a microscope and decide to have some real fun for a change?”

“...I'm afraid not, Stanley.” The elder said. “I came to bring you back to the boat. We're going to need to set out with the morning tide, which means I need you to help me get ready to sail and then have some sleep.”

“Are you kidding?” the younger frowned, “look, I know you get bored of a place as soon as the monsters are cleared out, but we busted our butts here! Don't you think we've earned a little shore leave? I was honestly thinking we might hang around a couple days....”

“It's not that,” the elder said, removing a sheet of paper from his coat and passing it forward. “It's this.”

The younger brother took the page with irritation. As he read, his expression softened. Then became deadly serious.

“Right.” he said. “Time to go.”

He set down his drink and stood up, much to the disappointment of the pretty men and women who'd been crowding around him.

* * *

“Thanks for the ride, Soos.” Dipper said. “I know this was all pretty short notice.”

“Dude. Dude. Look at my face right now.” Soos turned to Dipper, taking a hand off the wheel to point at himself. “Is this the face of someone who'd leave Mabel hanging? Don't even mention it, bro.”

“Is Melody going to be able to handle the Shack on her own?”

“Are you kidding? She was just disappointed that she couldn't join in the cheer-up party. But she's been looking for an excuse to lead a tour on her own for _months._ She'll probably hire someone from the high school to man the cash register and stuff. Or steal a child off the street. It's a tradition, y'know!”

“Uh-huh...” Dipper finished up the text he'd been typing, then looked up. “Okay. There's only one more stop we have to make before we can head over. Uh, how much weight can this truck handle?”

“Well, after that one bar in town started serving cryptids, I was using it as a shuttle for drunk Manotaurs who couldn't get home...”

“Perfect.” Dipper stuffed his phone back into his pocket and smiled. “Okay, take this exit up ahead. We're headed to Piedmont.”

* * *

“ _Weekend smoochin' in the park_

_Girl you make me crazy like_

_A blueberry shark_

_Sunshine, boggie dancin' happenin' fun_

_Our love makes less sense than_

_A tarantula gun”_

 

Mabel pulled out her earbuds and sighed. Even with her favorite playlist, homework wasn't going any faster. She thought about taking a break. Going down to the cafeteria for some french fries or to the arts building to work on one of her paintings, but the thought of leaving tomorrow's assignment unfinished just made her feel guilty.

She yawned and pushed her chair away from her desk. Her dorm room wasn't big, but it still managed to feel huge and empty with no one else in it. Even with a ton of posters and stuffed animals brightening up her half of it there was something about the off-white walls and bare-bones, flame-retardant furniture that just made her feel really sad. She really wanted to organize a study party or something. It was weird with no one else around and it was boring studying without friends. But the problem with study parties was that they kept turning into party-parties without really getting much studying done. And she knew that she really couldn't afford to not focus on this.

Tea. Tea made everything better, right? And if nothing else it would take a few minutes to make it, which meant a few minutes away from her desk. She dug the speed kettle out from her drawer, filled it halfway with water, plugged it in and turned it on. She was looking through her tea boxes trying to decide on what kind she wanted, when her phone rang.

“ _Dream boy hiiiigh!”_ Mabel's ringtone sounded from across the room. _“Who's gonna be your dream boy hiiii--”_

She picked up the phone, eager for a distraction. “Hello?”

“Hi there, Snickerdoodle,” a warm, gravelly voice replied. “How's my favorite grand-niece?”

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel smiled. “Hey! This is a surprise...a good one, though! How are you and Grunkle Ford doing?”

“Eh, same old, same old. Incredible adventures the likes of which most would hardly dare to dream of, you know how it is.”

“Are you still in the south pacific?”

“Nah, we've moved on from there. Betcha can't guess where I'm calling you from.”

“Where?”

“Didn'tcha hear me? I said guess! I'll give ya three tries.”

“Okaaaay...um...back in the arctic?” She doubted they'd be heading there anytime too soon, but maybe they'd wanted to visit Nuala.

“Way off. C'mon, you can do better than that!”

“Narnia?” Mabel hazarded. She mostly meant it as a joke, but with her grunkles who knew what was possible?

“Oooh, close. So close. One more try.”

“Mmmm...I can't think of anyplace!” Mabel laughed. “Just tell me, where are you?”

“We're right outside your door.”

Mabel almost dropped the phone. She wasn't sure she'd even heard right and for a moment she stood frozen in the tiny dorm kitchen. Until she heard a loud pounding on the door with a familiar voice behind it bellowing, “hey! Did the phone cut out or something? Dumb fancy technology...”

That time, Mabel did drop the phone and ran to the door, throwing it open with every intention of jumping at Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford and squeezing them both in the biggest, tightest hug she could manage. But the first hug ended up going to the gangly figure who ran inside to greet her, almost knocking her down as she hurried out into the hall.

“Dipper!” she cried, squeezing him with all her might and picking him up off the ground. “Did you do this?!”

“Couldn't leave my favorite sister feeling lonely.” he said, voice strained by the force of her hug. She loosened her grip to give her brobro a little oxygen. “Especially when I knew there were so many people who wanted to see her.”

“How'd you even get up here?!” she laughed, letting him go and turning to the other two. “It's all keycards, Grunkle Stan, there aren't even any locks to pick!”

“Actually...I'm responsible for that one.” Ford smiled sheepishly and held up some science fictiony looking handheld machine. “Short-range teleporter. I understand we could have just called and had you sign us in, but Dipper thought you'd appreciate the dramatic surprise a little more.”

“Yeah...” came a new voice from a few feet down the hall. Was Soos here too? “Plus it made it a lot easier to get this guy up the---whoa!”

Mabel poked her head into the hallway just in time to see Waddles break free from the flimsy harness Soos was grappling with and bound past the others towards her. There was a high-pitched squeal and she honestly couldn't tell whether it was coming from Waddles or her, but she threw her arms open and caught her beloved pig up in them just in time to be knocked back for the second time in five minutes.

“Waddles!” She cried in a voice that came out dripping with pink sugar and bubbly cartoon hearts. “My Waddles! I can't believe it...I missed you sho much! Did you miss me?” She squeezed his face in her hands, laughing as he slipped from her grip and angled his head downwards so she could scratch it. “Who misses his Mabel? Huh? Huh? Who's my favorite pig ever....?”

Mabel luxuriated in a few moments of blissful cuddling before looking back at her pig with concern. “Oh, sweetie...you can't be here! There aren't pets allowed in the dorms and the R.A. is really strict about it, and I don't think it's even legal to have a pet pig in this area!”

“Oh, Mabel.” Stan chuckled, mashing her hair down affectionately. “Still believing in laws at _your_ age.”

“Don't worry about getting in trouble.” Dipper said. “We've taken care of that. Believe me, we thought of everything. Just, if anyone asks Waddles is technically an ambassador.”

“And you don't need to worry about class tomorrow, either.” Ford added. “We spoke to the Dean and made some special arrangements for you.”

“We bribed her!” Stan grinned proudly.

“We did _not_.” Ford replied. “We simply offered to let the school's anthropology department keep some of the more interesting artifacts we've found on our travels for a semester to study them. In exchange, she agreed to talk to your teachers and get you an exemption from class and homework assignments for a week.”

“Yeah. That's called 'bribing her,' Poindexter.” Stan said, as if talking to a child. “Keep up, willya?”

“It'll mean you'll have to stay an extra week at the end of the semester, but by then Candy and Grenda and Pacifica will be able to come for a visit. Grenda said something about smuggling in their hellhoud puppy.”

The click of the speed kettle startled Mabel enough to make her turn. “Oh! You guys should come in and stop standing out in the hallway!” She gave Waddles an extra squeeze for good measure, then hurried over towards the kitchen area. “Does anyone want tea? I was just making some for myself, but I can put more water o- _eep!_ ”

Before she even made it to the kettle, Mabel felt a pair of hands hook in her armpits, lifting her an inch or two off the ground.

“Nope.” Stan said, turning her around and setting her back down facing the other direction. “You're not getting anybody anything. Go sit down someplace while we rearrange some furniture.” He pushed her towards her bed.

“What do you mean?”

“Gotta clear some space for the air mattress so we can all watch movies together!” He frowned and placed a palm against a wall. “Geez, these dorms are small. You think anyone'd notice if we busted a wall down?”

“Please don't.” Mabel said

“They didn't stick you in one of the crummy ones, did they? Cause if you need us to talk to someone about it...”

“It's fine Grunkle Stan, really! All the rooms are this size.” Mabel protested. But she did sit down on her bed, and even pulled her pillow up behind her to show that she was comfy. Waddles trotted up and climbed on the bed beside her. The springs protested and sagged a little in the middle, but it miraculously held.

She watched as a space was cleared in the middle of the room. She figured she'd be stopped again if she tried to get up and offer help, so instead she just sagged against Waddles and let him slobber on the knee of her pants. To be honest, she wasn't sure she _could_ get up if she had to. A minute ago, when she first saw everyone she'd been so filled up with energy and excitement, she felt like she might shoot up into the clouds like a bottle rocket. But it was starting to feel like that big burst had burned through all the energy she'd had left.

Soos rolled out a big air mattress and pulled out a duffel bag. “We brought some nuclear-level stressbusting supplies, dude. We got cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, some of abulita's horchata and plenty more snacks, we got board games, card games, we got fake mustaches and toilet paper for Mustache Mummy Rummy, extra blankets and pillows and all kinds of other stuff. Plus—a whole backpack full of quality entertainment.”

Mabel took the offered backpack and looked through the DVDs inside. _High School Dance Party, High School Dance Party II: Let's Get Dancier,_ _Pretty Boys With Problems Seasons III-IX,_ _Xyler and Craz's Craz-y Xyl-ventures Through Time,_ and three different magical girl animes.

Mabel raised a skeptical eyebrow. “But...you guys hate this kind of stuff.” she said.

“Eh, it's not so bad. I can turn down my hearing aid during the musical parts.” Stan said. Ford elbowed him in the side.

“We came here to spend time with you.” Dipper said. “This stuff makes you happy, and that's enough reason for us to like it. Plus, Soos is a huge fan of _Pretty Ribbons Space Queen._ ”

“Season 5 is the best one.” Soos said, “that's the storyline with the mind-control crystals that corrupt Space Queen Kanako's secret alternate dimension daughter and she has to use the power of love and violence to save her. Real deep stuff.”

Mabel looked from Soos back to Dipper who was beaming at her. Something about his expression just pushed her over the edge. She hugged the DVD against her chest, tears coming to her eyes.

“You guuuuys....” she swallowed. “You're being so nice...it's too much...”

Dipper wrapped her up in a hug. It was impressively tight, and it squeezed a couple of tears right out of her.

“No way,” he said. “It'll never be too much for you. You do so much for everyone else, but _you_ need some pampering too. And all of us wanna give you that.”

Before Mabel could even think about trying to reply, she felt several more arms coming to wrap around her, and soon she was being squeezed too tightly to say anything at all. So she just laughed wheezily and cried a little until Soos released his grip on all four of them and she could breathe properly again.

“Now, come on!” Dipper grinned and pulled her towards the air mattress. “You've got some hardcore relaxing to do. Which do you want to watch first?”

Mabel spread her arms, sighed contentedly and flopped down on the air mattress. Pillows and stuffed animals went flying around her, bouncing back from the impact. She wordlessly pointed to the copy of _High School Dance Party II_ as Waddles came to snuggle up at her feet. Dipper set his laptop up on the desk and popped the DVD in, turning the volume up.

The air mattress wobbled as the others clustered around her, blankets and pillows shifting until they were in a comfortable little nest. Everyone had ended up flopped all over one another in an attempt to fit together. By the time the opening credits were finished, Mabel was leaning against Soos's tummy with Grunkle Stan's arm behind her head, Grunkle Ford nestled up against her back, Dipper right next to her and Waddles still at her feet. She squeezed her brobro's hand and looked at him gratefully, and he looked back at her with a smile.

“ _Gee Brad_ ,” came a voice from the laptop as the movie began. “ _I can't believe it's been a whole year since we saved the school by dancing and snapping our fingers in unison.”_

“ _Neither can I, Alison. But there's no time to reminisce right now---brain-eating space lizards are attacking the town! We've gotta stop them!”_

“ _There must be some way to reason with them. Say, do you think brain-eating space lizards like to dance?”_

“ _There's only one way to find out! Or should I say, only one way to_ dance _out_!”

Mabel giggled as the familiar music for the big opening number started, and snuggled a little deeper into the pile. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so comfy, so safe and so secure. Even if actual brain-eating space lizards attacked right then, she was pretty sure they'd be unable to penetrate the thick and powerful cocoon of love that was around her right now.

...Besides, Grunkle Ford had assured her that most space lizards didn't really eat brains anyway.

The six of them watched both the _High School Dance Party_ movies and half a season of _Pretty Ribbons Space Queen,_ pausing only to make hot chocolate and to shift when the comfy cuddle pile needed adjusting. One by one, most of the others had fallen asleep on the air mattress as the evening wore down. Now it was just Mabel and Grunkle Ford, sitting across from each other on Mabel's bed, most of her physics homework spread out between them.

“So with that in mind...” Ford said, pointing to one of the problems she'd been having trouble with, “how would you determine the beat frequency?”

Mabel thought for a moment. “Um...you'd have to use this formula....maybe?” she tapped something she'd scribbled in her notes earlier with the end of her pencil.

Ford nodded, beaming. “See? You understand this better than you think. You just need it framed in a way that's more comprehensible to you.”

“I guess...” Mabel doodled a few circles in the corner of her notebook.

“You shouldn't doubt yourself. One of the most foolish and wrong-headed things the modern education system teaches is that art and science are two cities between which no roads run. Just because your interests lean heavily towards the humanities doesn't mean you can't be a student of physics too, if you want to.”

“...You don't think I bit off more than I can chew?” she smiled weakly.

Ford chuckled quietly, smiling back at her. “I watched you and Dipper tell Stanley and I that you were going after Bill alone, armed only with a size-altering crystal and a can of spray paint. That was biting off more than you could chew. This is nothing.”

“Thanks, Grunkle Ford. That really means---” she held a hand up to her mouth and yawned loudly. “...Means a lot....”

Ford seemed to make note of the yawn and checked his watch. “It's getting late. Let's save the rest of this for another day so you can rest.”

“What about you?” Mabel asked skeptically.

“I'll be off to bed soon myself. I'm still used to another time zone, remember.”

Mabel folded her arms and nodded to Stan, who was flat on his back on the air mattress, snoring away. “So is Grunkle Stan, and he's sleeping,” she pointed out.

Ford shook his head. “...You really don't ever stop thinking about other people, do you?”

“Nope. So you'd better lie down too or else I'm probably gonna worry, and that'd defeat the whole purpose of getting me to relax.” she grinned knowingly.

“Wouldn't want that.” Ford chuckled. “All right, you win.”

Mabel had changed into pajama pants over an hour ago and she'd never seen Ford sleep in anything other than his clothes, so it wasn't long before the two of them had found their own spots on the air mattress and snuggled in. The sound of Waddles making quiet little pig noises, the weird kitten sounds Dipper made in his sleep and Grunkle Stan's snoring all blended together until it was almost like white noise, and Mabel quickly felt herself drifting off.

Thinking about other people wasn't a bad thing, she knew that. But as she dropped off to sleep, she was also very glad to have friends and family that spent so much time thinking about her. Making sure she was taking care of herself.

She forgot to do that, sometimes. It was nice to have a reminder.

 


End file.
